Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
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Multiple Myeloma – Mediation
“Better sleep is just one benefit of meditation…meditation can also: relieve stress, reduce anxiety, improve cognition, improve your pain response, control high blood pressure, improve heart health, reduce inflammation…”
Multiple Myeloma (MM) patients, survivors and caregivers can experience all of those things- stress, anxiety, brain damage, pain, heart damage, inflammation and hypertension. I know I do. Meditation may be useful to you.
Whether you are a newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patient, MM survivor or MM caregiver, living with multiple myeloma is difficult. Our blood cancer is incurable. We will go into and out of remission repeatedly for the rest of our lives.
We will get scanned, stuck, irradiated repeatedly. Most of us will be in pain some or all of the time.
Fortunately, there are a number of therapies shown to help us live with this incurable blood cancer. Meditation is one such therapy that I employ most nights. I say nights for two reasons.
- First, sleep, or I should say, a good nights sleep, is important for us.
- Secondly, getting a good nights sleep, in my experience, takes effort.
When I say a good night’s sleep requires effort, I’m thinking when sleep didn’t really require any effort on my part at all. Until my MM diagnosis, I routinely sleep eight hours a night without a problem. Getting out of bed required effort. Now it is the other way around.
In any case, I now fall asleep easily but wake every night after 3-4 hours. And then getting back to sleep in my challenge. My solution? Meditation. Specifically, body scan medication.
If you have difficulty falling asleep or falling back asleep, I encourage you to learn about body scan medication below and then practice it. It will take some time before you are good at it. I practice body scan medication most every night and I am only somewhat proficient at this form of medication.
Slow, deep breaths. Focus on one body-part at a time, focus, relax, focus, relax.
According to the article linked below, medication can increase melatonin levels. I also supplement with low doses of melatonin once or twice a week. By low doses, I mean 300 mcg (micrograms).
To learn more about evidence-based but non-toxic therapies to manage your SBP, MGUS, SMM or MM, scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Multiple Myeloma – Sleep, Insomnia
Take it easy…
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Multiple Myeloma Therapy- Sleep Quality over Quantity
- Cardiac Rehabilitation- 7 Best Yoga Poses for a Healthy Heart
- Cardiac Rehabilitation: Blood Pressure, Hypertension Mgmt w/ Neutraceuticals, Lifestyle
- Non-Toxic Heart-Healthy, Blood Pressure Therapy- Cranberries?
3 Ways to Meditate for Better Sleep
“If you have trouble falling asleep at night, you’re not alone. About 35 to 50 percentTrusted Source of adults worldwide regularly experience insomnia symptoms.
For many people, sleeping difficulty is related to stress. That’s because stress can cause anxiety and tension, making it hard to fall asleep. In some cases, stress can simply worsen existing sleep issues.
Meditation may help you sleep better. As a relaxation technique, it can quiet the mind and body while enhancing inner peace. When done before bedtime, meditation may help reduce insomnia and sleep troubles by promoting overall calmness…
When you meditate, a variety of physiological changes occur. These changes initiate sleep by influencing specific processes in your body.
For example, in a 2015 study published in JAMA Internal MedicineTrusted Source, researchers analyzed how mindfulness meditation affected 49 adults with moderate sleep issues. The participants were randomly assigned 6 weeks of meditation or sleep hygiene education. At the end of the study, the meditation group experienced fewer insomnia symptoms and less daytime fatigue.
According to the researchers, meditation likely helps in several ways. Sleep problems often stem from stress and worry, but meditation improves your relaxation response. It also improves control of the autonomic nervous system, which reduces how easily you’re awakened.
Meditation may also:
Meditation is a simple practice that can be done anywhere, anytime. You don’t need special tools or equipment. In fact, the only thing you need is a few minutes.
However, establishing a meditation routine takes practice. By making time for meditation, you’ll be more likely to enjoy its benefits.
Here are the basic steps of meditation:
- Find a quiet area. Sit or lie down, depending on what feels most comfortable. Lying down is preferable at bedtime.
- Close your eyes and breathe slowly. Inhale and exhale deeply. Focus on your breathing.
- If a thought pops up, let it go and refocus on your breathing…
In body scan meditation, you focus on each part of your body. The goal is to increase awareness of your physical sensations, including tension and pain. The act of focusing promotes relaxation, which can help you sleep.
How to do body scan meditation
- Remove all distractions from your room, including your phone. Lie down in a comfortable position.
- Close your eyes and breathe slowly. Notice the weight of your body on the bed.
- Focus on your face. Soften your jaw, eyes, and facial muscles.
- Move to your neck and shoulders. Relax them.
- Continue down your body, moving to your arms and fingers. Continue to your stomach, back, hips, legs, and feet. Notice how each part feels.
- If your mind wanders, slowly shift your focus back to your body. If you like, you can repeat in the opposite direction, from your feet to your head…
Better sleep is just one benefit of meditation. When done regularly, meditation can also:
- improve your mood
- relieve stress
- reduce anxiety
- increase focus
- improve cognition
- reduce tobacco cravings
- improve your pain response
- control high blood pressure
- improve heart health
- reduce inflammation